Do you see the ghost standing by the wall, behind the tree? Just the faint outline of a young boy? No? OK, me neither. But I wouldn't have been surprised to meet an ethereal spirit that day.

Following our journey to Damme, Steve and I returned to Brugge seeking spirits of a different sort. After extensive research in several of the local libation laboratories, we reached a unanimous, if potentially controversial, decision: Belgium has the most interesting, diverse, and overall finest beers in the world. (And yeah, we've tried a few.) We awarded those Belgian monks our personal Nobel Prize for Brewmastery. There was rejoicing and a small parade.